Tax problems for Hilda Solis

Another Obama nominee has tax problems. Hilda Solis' husband has a body shop that apparently had some old liens against it. This could be a problem, but it sounds manageable. This is, hopefully, qualitatively different from Daschle's problem of being driven around in a limo and forgetting to pay taxes for it. A body shop in LA is not exactly an elitist accoutrement. You don't get much more blue collar than a body shop in LA. It's also a trivial amount of money, $6,400. It also sounds like it was an honest mistake on his part. Some of these liens date back to the early '90's. It sounds like something that could happen to a business in the normal course of things. It doesn't sound like a deliberate effort to evade taxes. Also, it's her husband's business, not hers.

Trapper John at Daily Kos thinks this is no big deal, and Republican efforts to make it so "ought to be mocked." I wouldn't go that far. I think this should be taken seriously. If Obama decides that she should stay, and I think he should, he should also explain exactly why, and what is different about her case, as opposed to Daschle's. We can't expect every public servant to have a perfectly unblemished record. There has to be room for forgiveness. I think some is in order here. Tim Geithner and Tom Daschle were members of the elite who made egregiously stupid errors that they really should not have made, and from which they clearly benefited financially (at least until they got caught). Their mistakes gave the impression that the elites were being treated differently.

Solis' husband's problems are more of the down-to-earth, could-happen-to-anybody variety. The total value of his business is apparently between $50,000 and $100,000. That's a small business. This sounds like a paperwork snafu, rather than elitists gaming the system. Solis should be confirmed as Secretary of Labor.

Daschle quits, Obama admits mistake (on TV!)

Tom Daschle withdrew his name from consideration for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Good for him. He didn't want to become a distraction, which is what he was becoming. He probably could've gotten through the nomination process, given that the Democrats control the Senate and most of them are good friends of his, but he would have been politically wounded, and Obama with him. The people involved claim that it was his decision, which I am willing to believe. This would have followed him. It also didn't smell right. It wasn't just that it was a mistake paying taxes. Part of it involved a clerical error on the part of the company he was working for. That would have been understandable. But part of it involved being driven around in a chaffeured car. Talk about a symbol of the rich. That's a bad visual. Kudos for him for doing the right thing.

I'm a little disappointed, because I was initially supportive of him as Secretary of HHS; I was looking forward to a very accomplished and smooth Washington operator taking on one of the toughest jobs there is right now. We might need all of that insider knowledge and experience to crack this nut called the healthcare crisis.

But then another part of just wants to scream "What an idiot!" How hard is it to pay your damn taxes? There's no excuse for not knowing the laws when you're one of the people writing them.

The upside is that Obama handled it brilliantly. He was interviewed on MSNBC by Brian Williams, and - amazing for a president - he owned up to it. He admitted that mistakes were made, and he took responsibility.

I think we should all take a moment, stop, think, take a deep breath, and appreciate real leadership when we experience it.

As Andrew Sullivan notes, it took Obama two weeks to do what George W. Bush couldn't do in eight years. And will probably never do in his entire life.

Here's the video of the interview with Brian Williams. One thing that I noticed is that Obama can do the politician thing of reciting talking points, but he can also answer questions honestly, and think about the answers. Wow.

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The silver lining of Daschle's tax problems

So Tom Daschle also has tax problems. Oops. From what I can tell, this may be an honest mistake. He had the use of a car from a company he worked for, and mostly used it for personal business. So he had to pay taxes on that. And there was apparently a "clerical error" involved in some other part of it. I'm not going to worry about that much of it. It doesn't look good, but I think he'll make it through.

It does bring up an issue that I expect will become a talking point for Obama; increasing audits on the wealthy. I haven't done any specific research on how the Bush administration treated audits for the upper classes, but I do recall reading that the number of audits for high-income taxpayers went down under Bush. Which would absolutely not surprise me. It would surprise me if tax enforcement on the rich got tougher under Bush.

So the silver lining of this little issue of the missing $128,000 in taxes, along with Geithner forgetfulness, means one thing: if voters/activists/Congresspeople start making noise about upping the enforcement on rich people paying taxes, ain't no way in hell either Mr. Geithner or Mr. Daschle is going to say a word. Which may mean that the American people just might support a higher budget for the IRS. Stranger things have happened.